Making a Pathfinder RPG Adventure: Day 4 – The Project Schedule

Recap From Episode 3 - Getting Organized

Yesterday I spend some time thinking about how best to organize all of my work including digital file management, hard copies of art, file backup, and took stock of all the design tools that I would be using to make the adventure module. I ended my post promising to talk about the Design Document as a method of organizing the work. I will still be doing that in the near future, however, I realized that perhaps I should first look at the Project Schedule to determine when I want to release the adventure and see how much time I really have to spend on each component.

So When Am I Going to be Done?

I thought long and hard about whether or not I should assign a completion schedule for this project, flip-flopping back and forth multiple times. One one hand, I didn't want to add stress by assigning deadlines and making it feel like a job. On the other, I would be more likely to develop a lackadaisical attitude after the initial thrill of working on something new wore off.

In the end, I decided that having deadlines was the right approach to take considering that one of my success criteria was to learn as much as possible about adventure design/self-publishing, and time management is an essential skill to learn if I have any intention of doing freelance work (which I do). That said, I have given myself an extremely generous schedule which should definitely be achievable. While I have given myself an entire year to complete all phases of the project (which includes time after the adventure publication date), I intend to revisit the schedule after the completion of each phase to see if I am able to shorten the duration. It is also my hope that others reading this blog series will contact me wanting to collaborate on this project. That would be just peachy. If I am able to form a team of passionate and dedicated peers, I should hopefully be able to reduce the schedule further.

Preliminary Project Schedule and Breakdown

For now, the preliminary duration for each phase and countdown timer is indicated below:

Project Completion Countdown Timer

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

Phase 1- Concept

Phase 2 - Pre-Production

Phase 3 - Manuscript First Draft

Phase 4 - Appendicies First Draft

Phase 5 - Stat Block First Draft

Phase 6 - Cartography First Draft

Phase 7 - Illustrations First Draft

Phase 8 - Manuscript Second Draft

Phase 9 - Appendicies Second Draft

Phase 10 - Stat Blocks Second Draft

Phase 11 - Cartography Second Draft

Phase 12 - Illustrations Second Draft

Phase 13 - Editorial Review

Phase 14 - Legalities

Phase 15 - Layout

Phase 16 - Advertising

Phase 17 - Feedback

Phase 18 - Publication

Phase 19 - Product Support

Phase 20 - Post Mortem

Based on this schedule, I have until January 14th to complete phase 1 - Concept. This should be easy as the majority of the work I have planned during this period isn't very time intensive. In fact, it takes considerably more time to blog about each topic (since I am still learning the intricacies of Wordpress) than to actually do the planning. I know that will change.

But still, four days in and so far, so good. Lets hope I can keep it up!

GITC Calendar

Pages

Paizo Community Use Policy Disclaimer

This website uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., which are used under Paizo's Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This website is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc. For more information about Paizo's Community Use Policy, please visit paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, please visit paizo.com.